This page has been updated. Please note letter templates have been amended.
Duty of Candour is the legal requirement for all NHS providers to be open and honest with patients and their families if something does not go as planned which may cause harm. Duty of Candour must be applied to any incident where moderate or greater harm has been caused. This involves:
- Telling the patient / their family when something has gone wrong
- Apologising to the patient / their family
- Including the patient and their family (if they wish) in the review of the incident and share the report if they wish to see it.
Below are some useful resources which give more information about Duty of Candour and processes for applying it.
- Duty of candour animation - NHS Resolution - this is a link to an explanatory video from NHS Resolution that describes what Duty of Candour is.
- Trustwide Duty of Candour process
- Duty of Candour guidance for providers
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All regulated healthcare professionals have a personal professional duty of candour for which they are personally accountable. Below is a link to the joint medical/nursing guidance on this, other professions have similar guidance that can be found on their relevant regulators website.
- Openess and Honesty Professional Duty of Candour
- Regulation 20 document
- Duty of Candour Policy - SA13
Initial DOC letter templates
The Patient Safety team have prepared templates for use in supporting the written follow up to initial DOC disclosure. These letters must be personalised according to the nature of the incident being discussed. It is strongly recommended that a second person proof reads the letter before it is sent, to prevent any distress to the recipient.
Duty of Candour queries
Please contact your Divisional risk and governance lead initially. The Patient Safety Team are also able to offer guidance. Please return to this page for more details.